Emraan Hashmi may be playing a high profile international bookie in JANNAT but in real life he is far away from being a gambler.

'Really, I don't want to get pulled into the world of gambling, whether big or small, at all. I anyways don't know the art of gambling at all. When I tried it once during the shooting of JANNAT, I lost quite some money. This is when I knew that I had to stop imitating what I do on screen in real life', laughs Emraan who would be seeing a film of his release after a year ever since his career best performance was highly acclaimed in AWARAPAN.

'Come on, I enjoy the goodies in my life quite a lot and the last thing I want is to loose my house in the bargain, lest I start indulging into gambling. Of course in an event like Diwali, I do try my luck but this is where the buck stops, pun intended', winks Emraan who would be seen with new-find Sonal Chauhan in JANNAT.

Does disliking gambling means that he dislikes gamblers as well? 'No nothing like that', reacts Emraan, 'Why should I hold anything against people who gamble? It's their life and they have the freedom to lead it the way they want it. In any case, I don't have any moral or ethical viewpoint per se about gambling or betting. To each his own.'

In fact Emraan did interact with a few bookies while preparing for his role in JANNAT. Buzz is that he even visited some shady joints to understand how the entire exercise is carried out. 'Yes, Kunal Deshmukh (the film's director) and I did make the rounds of places where bookies operate. Sometimes we even had to come together at a relatively down-market pub/bar for follow up conversations. Not just that, we also had a real life bookie coming to the sets sometimes to help us out on some scenes', informs Emraan.